Quotes from Gerald Durrell

Roger and I would make our way down through the breathless olive groves, vibrating with the cries of the cicadas, and pad our way along the dusty road, Roger sneezing voluptuously as his great paws stirred up the dust, which went up his nose like snuff.

In my experience it is always the most innocent-looking creatures that can cause you the worst damage.

shiny ribbon-weed, looking like dark feather boas, anchored to the sand

to bring us a handful of figs from his tree or a few almonds, milky and fresh, which we would crack between the smooth stones on the beach.

dead by all the relatives. You are supposed to be head of the family – stop him writing it.' 'You do exaggerate, Larry dear,' said Mother. 'Anyway

It was the hottest hour of the day when even the cicadas seem to slow down and falter occasionally in their song. The black ants moved busily across the cloth, gathering the crumbs of our food.

cautioning Roger upon pain of death not to utter a sound, we made our way cautiously into the villa and slipped like shadows into my bedroom.

I took an instant liking to Miss Melancholy Delight. She looked like a bulldog who has - by mistake - been put through a washing machine. Nevertheless, I felt that any woman who had survived through life being called Melancholy Delight demanded my masculine support.

The myrtle forests were full of mantises some three inches long, with vivid green wings. They would sway through the myrtle branches on their slender legs, their wickedly barbed front arms held up in an attitude of hypocritical prayer, their little pointed faces with their bulbous straw-coloured eyes turning this way and that, missing nothing, like angular, embittered spinsters at a cocktail party.

in a star-lit sky, shedding only the feeblest light.

Spiro, we have a problem,' he confessed. It was like saying 'walkies' to a bull mastiff.

Here Sally's hooves crushed the herbs underfoot and the warm air became redolent with the scent of sage and thyme.

My creatures, each in its own way, abused me, reviled me, slandered me and condemned me out of hand for being five minutes late with their food.

Yes, there's a lot I have learned about flowers. They're just like people. Put too many together and they get on each other's nerves and start to wilt. Mix some kinds and you get what appears to be a dreadful form of class distinction.

It seemed to me, in the gloom, that the flowers had moved closer to her, had crowded eagerly about her bed, as though waiting for her to tell them something. A ravaged old queen, lying in state, surrounded by her whispering court of flowers.

My family's ignorance of the world they lived in was always a source of worry to me, and I never lost an opportunity of imparting information.

fluffy oak trees.

It had a tremendously wide head with golden eyes and a sulky, pouting mouth.

It looked immensely sure of itself as it lay there, flamboyant, on the sand, and immensely dangerous, too.

This is good eating,' whispered Taki to my surprise, for the fish, if anything, looked highly poisonous.

hung like a trembling curtain of black lace

Progress,' said Audrey shortly....'It's important to destroy [nature] so we can have more electricity so that we can then have colour television to show us what the world is really like.

If you want my personal view I do not think it matters what you worship provided what you worship does no harm to others....You must remember always that one man's God may be another man's fairy tale, but both Gods and fairy tales have their place in the world.

The meringues were large and white and brittle as coral and stuffed to overflowing with cream.